Life and death, according to my four-year-old

My four year old is obsessed with death. Not in an afraid-of-it kind of way. Not in a future-goth-kid kind of way. She's simply intrigued by it in a very innocent way. It makes it into her creative play. It becomes a part of the stories she “reads” to her dolls. She loves to tell me about how the dinosaurs all died and became bones, and then the elephants and people came after that. It is pretty ubiquitous at times. If there's a way to bring death into a conversation, she does.

It's weird, but I'm rolling with it, answering her questions in as close to a four-year-old level as I can figure out, and enjoying the humorous moments. Two of the funniest:

• Emily and I were looking at pictures of my dad before he shaved off his mustache. Emily exclaimed, “Grandpa used to have a mustache. Then it died. It lives with Heavenly Father now.
• The other day during bath time, she had one of her bath letters pretend to walk into too deep water in the pool and die. Then she had another bath letter pretend to be Jesus and bring it back to life. Rinse in still too deep water, repeat death scene. Again and again. At least I know she's been listening to our pool safety and FHE lessons, but I'm just crossing my fingers that she won't play that game in preschool.

Turns out, there nothing like your child resurrecting toys in the bathtub to make you realize just how big a role death plays in your theology.